Council housing in Lambeth going backwards

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jul 2007

Caroline Pidgeon and Geoffrey Bowring discover a broken entry door at Paulet Road

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Vauxhall, Caroline Pidgeon has spoken out on Labour's failures locally and nationally on housing.

"Gordon Brown's recent announcement is too little - and ten years too late. When Chancellor he created a housing crisis of shocking proportions. Since 1997 council housing waiting lists have soared with an extra 600,000 households waiting for a home. Last year 25,000 social homes were built in the UK compared with at least 56,000 needed to cut waiting lists. Allowing councils to build council housing again would be one very simple way to tackle this crisis. We also need to deliver more affordable housing. The Government should hand the 550 sites owned by government departments to community land trusts. That would ensure the homes built on them would remain affordable into the future. Government schemes currently only guarantee their affordable homes are affordable the first time they are sold. In our area the Labour council has failed dismally - only 270 affordable housing units were delivered in the year to March 2007 (against a target of 500) the majority of those homes shared ownership, which are only technically affordable given the cost of buying in and renting.

Locally in Lambeth the Labour party have traditionally treated tenants and leaseholders in Lambeth with contempt - highlighted most recently by denying residents a real choice of the options for improving their homes, but instead spending huge amounts of money trying to force through their dishonest plans for an ALMO, misleading people into believing they were all

going to get new kitchens and bathrooms.

In May 2006 the Labour party in Vauxhall and their local MP urged everyone to vote for them without mentioning the ALMO, and without any indication of their plans to cut housing offices, run-down estate care, nor the 300% increase in squats and doubling of the time to re-let voids, that would result from them taking back control in the borough.

To find out more about what is happening in Vauxhall, a few weeks ago I walked around Paulet Road Estate in Camberwell with long-time local resident Eileen Shockley. The estate had seen some improvements when the Lib Dems were running Lambeth, but things have gone down since then. My walkabout resulted in a substantial list of problems which I submitted via the leader of the Lib Dems on Lambeth Council for Lambeth Housing to deal with. All the problems had been notified at least once to Housing or the local Labour councillors!

Broken garage doors are one example of poor maintenance at Paulet Road

The list included: Faulty entry-door systems and security cameras, broken pavings, untaxed or dumped cars, voids not dealt with promptly, unsecured garages being used for dumping and drug-taking and dealing, rats and grounds maintenance.

I am pleased that as a result of the enquiry some of these issues have been resolved.

I will work alongside the Lib Dem councillors in Lambeth as well as colleagues nationally to fight for better, responsive housing services for all tenants and leaseholders."